Gone Too Soon
by wolfhead
Summary: Present for klrob! Angst. Someone dies, and Danny is left to grieving... DS


**Birthday present for klrob! It's her birthday, so go annoy her with Happy Birthday Spam! :D She wanted something Angsty, so here's my first attempt at angst... Any good? I think Danny became a little OOC at the end, but I'd go through a big personality change if someone died because of me... so yeah.**

**Enjoy the angst!**

**Happy Birthday klrob!  
**

Danny knelt by the grave, running a thumb over the chiseled letters that were slick with rain. He had read them over so many times, he knew their exact shape and exactly what they said. But he still couldn't believe it. It couldn't be real. She couldn't be gone.

Danny closed his eyes and felt his mind rush back to happier days, before the ghost nonsense.

"_Hey," A nine year old boy spoke to his best friend, his baby blue eyes sparkling happily._

"_Hey yourself, Danny." The girl said, smiling back at her friend. _

_The boy sat down next to her, staring up at the sky like she was. Night was falling and his favorite things in the world were starting to sparkle in the sky. The stars were beautiful. "Do ya think we'll be best friends forever?" He said suddenly._

"'_Course. I wouldn't have it any other way." The girl said absentmindedly, squinting her eyes to find the Big Dipper._

"_Pinky promise?"_

_She glanced at him with a wide smile, "Pinky promise." She shook her pinky with his to seal the promise._

Danny gritted his teeth and his shoulders hunched as he fought back the pain. She _promised!_ Yes it had been a kiddie pinky promise, but Sam had never broken her promises. It wasn't fair. Before he could draw himself away, another memory popped to the front of his brain.

"_Listen to me!" The annoyed teenage girl growled, glaring at her two best friends._

"_What, Sam?" Tucker said, leaning against the lockers, his red beret askew on his head. _

"_Would you two come back from Preppy Princess Land for a moment and just LISTEN TO ME?" The girl snarled now, her eyes narrowed._

_Danny broke his eyes away from Paulina's slender form and turned with exasperation to his best friends. "What, Sam?" He groaned, annoyed and tired from being up all night evading Walker and his goons._

"_I'm trying to tell you that there was a ghost at my house yesterday." Sam said, glaring._

"_What? What ghost?" Danny said, his attention changing directions entirely._

_She glared and said icily, "I thought you weren't interested Danny."_

_He sighed and said, "Sam, I'm interested in a ghost being at your house. What if it had hurt you?"_

_She rolled her eyes and said, "It was the Fright Knight... and he said to tell you that if you didn't let up on the ghost catching, they'd take something you'd never replace and make it their own… Whatever that means. Probably was just a fake threat as normal."_

_He blinked and said, "I guess I have to make sure that doesn't happen."_

_She snorted. "You do that, wonder boy."_

Danny placed his soaked banquet of lilies upon the grave and whispered, "I'm so sorry, Sam. Why couldn't I just see what was so obvious. That message was as transparent as glass, and I couldn't figure it out in time…"

His mind was apparently determined to make him miserable, as it jumped to the next memory.

_Danny smiled as Klemper slid into the thermos and he sighed. "That's all of them!" He said, just as a blue breath curled from his mouth. His smile fell and he growled a fair imitation of Sam. He turned around mid air and saw Skulker hovering nearby, his face cross and bad tempered._

"_Didn't your goth girlfriend give you our message?" Skulker said, the soft drone of his jetpack all the noise in the night._

"_Yes." Danny said, eyeing him, wondering when he'd make his first move._

_Skulker blinked and a cruel hunter's smile crossed his face. "You didn't take it seriously?"_

"_Why should I? It's just an empty threat." Danny shot back._

"_Well, it won't be your funeral, whelp. Till next time." Skulker smirked and vanished. _

_Danny yelled, "Get back here, Skulker!" and he flew around looking, but didn't find the ghost. He yawned enormously, floating back to his house and collapsing into his bed, drifting off as Fenton as his head hit the pillow. _I wonder what Skulker was talking about…_ he thought as he fell asleep._

Stupid, so stupid! Danny berated himself. It was all his fault. All of it. Because he was vain, and didn't think the ghosts could touch those he loved. He hadn't realized it, hadn't taken his head out of 'Preppy Princess Land' long enough to see what was about to happen. A sob choked him as the rain fell harder. He hadn't been strong enough, or smart enough. Why had he gotten these powers? Why not Jazz, who was so much more intelligent? _She_ would've understood. _She _wouldn't have missed the rather obvious point in every warning. And there were so many warnings, and he had ignored them. And Sam had paid.

_A cell phone ringing in the night roused Danny. "What?" He growled into the receiver. _

"_Dude!" Tucker's panicked voice spoke into his ear. "I was playing Doomed online with Sam, and then she sent me a weird message. She said the ghost was hanging around her house again, and then her character just stopped moving. She NEVER abandons a game halfway, Danny! Something's wrong, I bet!"_

"_Calm down, I'll go check. She probably just fell asleep." Danny soothed his best friend as the white rings revealed Phantom. He felt a sting of worry, but ignored it. She'd be fine. He closed the phone and flew through his walls, pelting across town as quick as he could. He couldn't squelch the fear in him and he flew to her house. He turned invisible and dropped into her room, looking around. "Sam?" He called softly. The computer was on, its monitor the only light in the room. He looked around the shadowy room and felt more worry. Where was she? "Sam!" He called, and then saw blue breath bloom in front of him. He whirled towards the window and saw the shadowy figure of Skulker floating out her window. "WHERE IS SHE?" HE yelled, shooting out of her room, through the open window, towards the ghost. _

_Skulker gave a cruel smile. "We warned you, whelp." _

_Then Danny saw the other ghosts around. There was the Box Ghost, Lunch Lady,Ember, The Fright Knight, Walker, Dora, and Nocturn besides Skulker. And in Walker's grip, hung Sam. He had one hand close around her neck, and the other was around her waist, supporting her. Sam was clawing at his hand around her neck. Her amethyst eyes were filled with fear and anger. _

"_Let her go!" Danny hollered, flying towards Walker, but Skulker grabbed one arm, and Dora, in dragon form, grabbed the other. _

"_No, ghost boy." Walker said, "We warned you again and again. You didn't take us seriously. We said we'd take something you cared about and make it our own. Now you get to watch."_

_Danny opened his mouth to do the Ghostly Wail, but one of Walker's goons flashed up and put a collar on his neck, making it shock him and he couldn't concentrate. Danny's green eyes met Sam's desperately. "Please." He begged, "Kill me, don't kill her." _

"_You dipstick." Ember purred, her blue hair flickering. "We want you to feel pain so you'll leave us alone. So say goodbye to your little girlfriend…"_

"_SAM!" Danny yelled as Walker released her waist and all of Sam's weight fell on her neck. It was like a hangman's noose and it was cutting off her air. She clawed at his hand, but Walker held strong. _

_Her struggles grew weaker, and with her last shallow breath she whispered, "Danny…" Before the amethyst eyes slid shut and she stopped breathing._

"_SAMMMM!" Danny screamed, his Ghostly Wail unleashing upon the unsuspecting ghosts and the collar flickered wildly, but he couldn't feel the pain, all he could see was those beautiful amethyst eyes clouding over, and… _

_The ghosts fell back from his assault, and Walker dropped Sam. Her body fell, and Danny broke from his captors to scoop her into his arms. He flew to the ground, ignoring the still stunned ghosts. "Please Sam, please wake up." Danny begged, his voice cracking. "Don't leave me." He whispered. "I love you."_

_But it was too late. The slender Goth would never reopen her eyes, and Danny touched her cold lifeless body, searching desperately for a pulse that wasn't there. He felt tears slide down his face as an overwhelming grief washed over him. Gone, she was gone, and before he could tell her… Danny looked up and his eyes focused on the ghosts still floating above. His eyes narrowed, and the emerald eyes flickered scarlet. He rested her tenderly against a tree, lovingly brushing her black hair away from her face. Then he shot up and stared at the ghosts, his green eyes turned dark scarlet. "Run. Never come back into the human world. Because I WILL stop catching you. Instead I will destroy you, like you destroyed her. Like you destroyed me. Now run, or you will die permanatly." His voice was cold as ice and feelingless. The ghosts saw his gaze and vanished one by one. Walker was the last, and was about to leave, when he felt a hand clasp around his wrist. "You'll be the first." Danny said with a cruel smile. He had unclasped his collar and hooked it around Walker's throat, before cranking up the power. It tortured the law working ghost and it screamed. Danny watched coolly, his eyes hard rubies. When Walker became limp, too pained to scream, Danny reached towards his throat and broke his neck. "Die like she did." He hissed before the ghost disintegrated._

Danny traced the letters on the grave again. Too late, all too late, and she was gone. And he would make the ghosts pay, all the ghosts pay. If they so much as touched the human realm, he would destroy them, slowly. Make them suffer. Because the cold in him would never let up, never feel the touch of sunlight when she smiled or laughed at him. Now he was cold like a true ghost. She hadn't become a ghost, he knew that. She wouldn't have. Danny felt tears fall down his face and a soft hand clasped his shoulder.

Tucker was dressed in a black suit, and didn't have his beret. His bottle green eyes were hazy with tears and he said, "Danny, let's go. W-we've said goobye to Sam a-and now we have to keep going…" He pushed his glasses up and rubbed his sleeve across his eyes, silent sobs making his shoulders rise and fall.

Danny got to his feet slowly, looking down at her grave. He read the gravestone one last time.

_Samantha Manson_

_1996-2010_

_Beloved Daughter and Friend._

Danny touched her name once more before whispering quietly, "You left too soon, Sammy. You were gone way too soon…"


End file.
